Thursday, October 9, 2008

High Dials Go To 11

Montreal-based The High Dials make lush, intelligent psychedelic pop; dreamy anthems built on bittersweet melodies, bright harmonies and moody guitar sounds. The band has released two previous records: A New Devotion (2003) and War of the Wakening Phantoms (2005), which made year-end top-10 lists of many critics, including the Washington Post and Magnet Magazine, and won high praise from All Music Guide and Spin. The album also went to number one on Canadian college radio charts.

Notable High Dials fans the band have made along the way include Anton Newcombe of the Brian Jonestown Massacre (who often turns up at gigs, hopping onstage to join in their songs (and then kicking everyone's ass with a series of kung fu moves and baseball bats), Andrew Loog Oldham, original 60s hustler and star-maker to the Rolling Stones, and Rod Argent, legendary songwriter of the Zombies, who performed on one of the High Dials B-sides.

Moon Country was produced by Joseph Donovan (Sam Roberts, The Dears) and is a celebration of the album as an art form in this MP3 age. The album is divided into two sides – Side A and Side B - like an LP, in the hopes that listeners will take it in as a sequenced, cohesive, self-contained piece of music. Parts of Moon Country were recorded in a remote cabin in Ireland (if you listen closely, you can actually hear the fire crackling in the background!), before the album was completed in a studio in Montreal.

Disclaimer

MP3s on the POP! Stereo are available for a limited time only and are intended for evaluation purposes only. If you like what you hear, or read about support the artists by actually purchasing their albums, going to shows, and buying their merchandise.

If you own copyright to one of the songs posted and would like it removed, email us at djpaulpop@yahoo.com.